1. Technical Field
This present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid filling material having an adjustable labeling mechanism for labeling bottles, and a method of operating a beverage bottling plant. It accordingly includes rotary-type machines with rotating plates on which the containers stand, and with labeling stations that are located on the periphery of the rotor or can be attached or docked to it, linear machines or even horizontal rotors.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
On rotary-type labeling machines (DE 28 45 645 B1), the prior art teaches that the entire labeling station, i.e. the carrier with the gripper cylinder as well as the label box and the glue roller or gum furret, can be rotated as a unit around the axis of the carrier. The different distances of the areas to be labeled from the labeling stations that result from the different sizes and formats of the objects to be labeled can be bridged by the displacement toward the path of transport of the objects of the path of circulation of the gripper and applicator elements related to their torque. However, problems are encountered in the transfer of labels from the gripper cylinder to the areas to be labeled, because these areas, on account of the equal angular velocity of the objects that are moving on a curved track past the labeling stations, when the paths of the areas to be labeled have different radii of curvature, are moving at a speed which is not the same as the speed of the grippers and in particular of the applicator elements. In other words, in the area where the labels are transferred to the objects, there is no synchronization between the areas to be labeled and the applicator elements. This problem is overcome by mounting the portion of the gripper cylinder that supports the applicator elements on the gripper cylinder axis by means of an adjustable cam.
The different distance of the areas to be labeled from the labeling station is taken into consideration on one hand by the rotation of the entire labeling station with respect to the bottle table and on the other hand by the adjustment of the cam of the part that supports the applicator elements, so that the path of circulation of the applicable elements is tangent to or intersects the path of the areas to be labeled at a slight angle. When large-diameter bottles are being labeled with short labels, however, problems are encountered in the transfer of the labels to the bottle, because the gripper element which is not adjusted by the cam does not put the label in the optimum position for the transfer. To compensate for this disadvantage, a control cam is provided for the radial displacement of each gripper element, on which a scanning mechanism that is associated with the gripper element is guided. For the adjustment to different bottle diameters, the prior art teaches still other solutions (DE-OS 15 86 365, DE 24 35 540 B2), that include an adjustment of the labeling station in the radial direction in relation to the midpoint of the bottle table.
The corresponding adjustment and adaptation of the labeling station is thereby done manually, and the result of the adjustment must be constantly verified by the operator or maintenance employee.